A hot shooting first half and a game high 20 points from sophomore Gunnar Galloway just wasn't enough to lead the Trojans to victory Tuesday night at home as they fell to Carrier Mills 68-42.

However, the game was much more than a Greater Egyptian Conference win for the Wildcat's head coach.

Tuesday night's 24 point victory marked the 600th career win for coach Mark Motsinger, who began coaching the Wildcats in 2003 after a 15 year run as the women's coach at Southeastern Illinois College.

"My best season at Carrier Mills came in 2008-09 when we tied the school's record for the most wins and made it to the Sweet Sixteen," coach Motsinger said. " We won the Conference Championship for five years straight and have had a lot of talented players come through here. I've also been lucky enough to have coached my two sons."

Motsinger has won 174 games while at Carrier Mills, notching the rest while head coach at Henderson County, KY, Thompsonville and SIC in Harrisburg.

Despite a slow first half on both ends of the court the Wildcats were able to pull away after half time.

The Trojans came out of the gate hot and were ahead of the Wildcats 12-15 at the end of the first quarter.

But the Wildcats surged back into the game as their seniors began to heat up.

Cameron Taborn led the Wildcats with 17 points, also having the first dunk of high school career late in the second quarter to put his team ahead for the first time in the game with the score 26-21 at half time.

But it was all Carrier Mills from then on as they ralied on a 11-0 run during the third quarter.

"This is a young team without a lot of expirience," Crab Orchard head coach Jon Brown said. "We lost a few of our main players early on in the season to injury but we get better every game. We started out hot tonight but just couldn't finish."

The Wildcats will be baack in action at home Friday night against Hardin County, where the game ball will be presented to coach Motsinger for Tuesday night's win, and Crab Orchard will stay home Friday to host Norris City-Omaha-Enfield.